Guide rollers are utilized in the sheet or roll material processing industry serving to guide the roll being processed. Ordinarily the guide rollers consist of steel tubes. The same applies to expansion shafts, which are capable of adjusting their diameters to the clamping action. Such expansion shafts of steel, for instance, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,656 and in German design registry No. DE-U-86 34 752.
The specific disadvantage of the conventional tubes and shafts, respectively, is their extremely heavy weight. For example, a guide roller made of steel tube measuring eight (8) meters in length with a diameter of 300 mm weights 1.25 tons.
Tubes made of a solid epoxy-saturated carbon fiber material are known to exist, however they are also relatively heavy if they are to meet all mechanical specifications.